Last Saturday night, in just one stunning round, Juan Manuel Lopez became the latest in a long line to come off the island to win a world title. That island, of course, would be Puerto Rico, which seems to produce champions as if they were mass produced and shaped as if they came off an assembly line.
Ford and General Motors have to be impressed.
The numbers are actually a bit startling, considering that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has a population of only four million. Yet it has produced seven boxers who have been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. This list includes its first world champion, Sixto Escobar, and then Wilfredo Benitez, Wilfredo Gomez, Carlos Ortiz, Edwin Rosario, Pedro Montanez and Jose Torres. Soon, icon, Felix Trinidad will be included. And currently, Miguel Cotto and Ivan Calderon are consensus members of the mythical pound-for-pound class.
But back to Lopez, who faced the reigning WBO jr. featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce de Leon this past weekend at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His bout, which was the opener on the HBO telecast that featured Kelly Pavlik’s blowout of Gary Lockett, was thought by many observers to be the real main event of the night.
Instead, it was an even quicker destruction. He took two less rounds to dethrone Ponce de Leon than Pavlik needed to retain his middleweight crown.
After boxing his way through the first half of the initial stanza, a ripping right hook – which was set up by a lead left hand – would nail the usually stout Mexican on the jaw, sending him crashing to the canvas. Because Lopez is a southpaw, Ponce de Leon never seemed to see the shot coming his way. From there, a dazed Ponce de Leon would bravely attempt to fight his way back into things but was unable to hold off the precise onslaught of Lopez. After a second trip to the canvas, referee Michael Ortega had no choice but to halt the proceedings at 2:25 of the first.
Coming in, it was thought that this matchup would be a classic battle of boxer versus puncher. But instead, the boxer would out-punch and out-execute a fighter who had made six defenses of his title coming in. Ponce de Leon will never be known as a great stylist or particularly gifted boxer, but nobody had ever beaten him so convincingly. His lone blemish coming in was a tough 12-round affair against current WBA 122-pound titlist Celestino Caballero back in 2005.
?I told everyone it was going to be like seven, eight rounds before I would knock him out. But I’m surprised, we’re all surprised that we finished that early,” admitted Lopez through Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez. Regarding the punch that opened up the floodgates, he would say, “I knew he was hurt. He got up but I didn’t want to endanger myself to go out there and get knocked out myself. So I took it easy, I looked again, but I knew he was hurt.”
What was as equally impressive as his jolting power was the poise and calm he showed in systematically dispatching a hurt foe. Despite being just a veteran of 22 fights (20 of them won by knockout) and still only 24 years old, he looked like a seasoned pro.
Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez are currently the best the division has to offer. But ‘JuanMa’ is clearly its future.
And he could be the next great Boricua boxer.
“We always knew coming out of the 2004 Puerto Rican team that he was the charm of the class, like Cotto was out of 2000,” said the President of Top Rank, Todd duBoef, whose company co-promotes Lopez. “Coincidentally, both come from Caguas. He’s another fighter who takes his orthodox hand, which is his right hand, and makes it his lead hand – just like Cotto made his left hand his lead hand. And he has a really, really good counter right hook and has a lot of skill.”
Some wondered if this title opportunity had come a bit early for Lopez. Especially in light of how another undefeated prospect, Rey Bautista, had gotten blitzed by Ponce de Leon last summer.
“We knew he had the skill. We didn’t know if he had the physical maturity,” said duBoef. “But my matchmakers, they know how to do it, and Bruce Trampler felt it was a 50-50 fight, maybe Ponce as a little bit of a favorite. But he says you gotta give him the opportunity, you gotta let the thoroughbred go.”
They are determined to keep their fighter busy.
“With having a co-promoter, Peter Rivera, who does active shows in Puerto Rico, and with our shows, we can really get him to pop back and forth and we can use both platforms,” said duBoef. “And the best thing is this is a guy who’s really been developed on Univision, Telefutura, undercards of pay-per-views, everything. He wasn’t babied, and he wasn’t silver-spooned and put on big premium channels because that’s where he had to be. He did it the right way, at the right pace.”
And he has arrived. He’s no longer just a bright prospect, but a newly minted titlist who opened more than just a few eyes with his startling performance.
“We always felt like we were going to get there, that this day was going to get here” said the boyishly handsome Lopez. “But once you’re here, you feel the emotions of the moment.”
It’s clear that he’s well aware of the tradition that exists back home. But he seems more than willing to embrace it. There are some big Cleto-Reyes’ to fill.
“It’s a great tradition there of champions and now I have to build on it,” he would say with a broad grin. “This is a first step, there are many more steps to take.”
HBO
I thought the best part of HBO’s broadcast on Saturday night was not the explosive performances of Pavlik and Lopez, but the pre-fight feature that was done on Pavlik and his relationship with cancer survivor Dante Delsignore. You had to be a tin man not to have been at least a little bit emotional while watching it.
It’s the type of vignette that HBO does so well. Nobody can tell a story better than they can. It’s the type of feature that this network used to do on a regular basis and was a reason why I became a boxing fan and what made their broadcasts so special in the past.
Let’s hope they go back more to this formula. It sure beats contrived 24/7’s.
PUH-LEEZE
Just my opinion, but I think within six months the ‘retired’ Floyd Mayweather is back in training for his next bout. Folks, we’ve seen this routine before. Only this time he didn’t put us through a boring affair with Carlos Baldomir, didn’t have tears and man-hugs at a press conference and no tacky watches were given out.
So consider that an improvement.
What this is is just a temper tantrum because he can’t get purse parity with Oscar De La Hoya for their rematch, and another way to get his name back into the headlines (which, admittedly, he’s getting very good at.)
But please, save all this talk of his legacy and his historical standing within the sport; he’s about as ‘retired’ as the Rolling Stones and Jay-Z were in the past. He will be back, count on it.
What’s ironic is this – if De La Hoya-Mayweather II doesn’t come off for whatever reason, well, then those two will have finally have helped the sport.
FINAL FLURRIES
If IBF jr. featherweight titlist Steve Molitor has indeed signed with promoter Murad Muhammad, file that under ?Be Careful What You Wish For.? I wonder what Manny Pacquiao thinks of all this?…Just wondering, what does HBO think of Mayweather?s ‘retirement’ given the fact they shelled out a bunch of money for De La Hoya’s bout versus Steve Forbes as a lead-up to that rematch in September….Remember when Dontrelle Willis was good?….So will Ken Griffey’s legacy be that he was the cleanest of all the power hitters in this recent era? Unless we find out differently, he’s one of the few that is untainted….I think a bout between Urbano Antillon and Humberto Soto is a helluva scrap. Antillon, if anything, is an entertaining hard-nosed grinder…..Has gas hit $5 a gallon yet?….And finally, R.I.P. Jim McKay, a true broadcasting legend. He will be missed…..
